It really is very good.
But at three and a half hours, it’s not long enough. More than previous two films, it has obviously suffered from what must have been a heartbreaking editing process. There’s so much going on that few of the characters have time to develop, which is especially a problem for Denethor, who’s new in this film and rather subtle anyway. He doesn’t get enough screen time to really carry the implication that he’s being influenced by Sauron, so there’s nothing to explain why he’s come so unhinged as to be trying to burn his son alive.
However, if you had to pick a few characters to focus on, your best choice would be the Hobbits - and that seems to be what they’ve done.
The scenes with Sam and Frodo and Gollum play out beautifully. Merry and Pippin change the most in the books, and that’s covered well in the film too. Pippin’s scenes wandering through Gondor before the battle with the soldier’s son are missing, presumably because they would have spoiled the tension, but his relationship with Gandalf and his reaction to Denethor’s despair are very strong.
Hollywood epics generally don’t go in for despair as a theme, but Return of the King is drenched in it. Like the Helm’s Deep scenes in Two Towers, the tension builds up relentlessly as Gondor falls under siege. But it’s several orders of magnitude bigger, and there’s no hint of hope in the preparations.
There’s been much discussion of the changes made to the plot in all three films, and up until this one I thought they were all well justified. Tom Bombadil was silly, and had to go. Faramir was a better character for being more deeply tempted by the Ring. The Elves arriving at Helm’s Deep was more effective than vaguely mentioning that they were fighting their own battles against Sauron somewhere up north. But I think it was a mistake to leave out the Scouring of the Shire.
If you haven’t read the books (and I’ve only read them once), when the Hobbits return to the Shire they find it’s been turned into an industrial wasteland, and their kin have been enslaved. It turns out that Saruman and Wormtongue have escaped there from the ruins of Isengard and taken it over. Frodo is sick and weary, but Merry and Pippin have become brave warriors, and they personally defeat Saruman and save the Shire.
It serves to really bring home the point that everything has changed, even in the Shire, which makes Frodo’s eventual fate more understandable. I think a lot of what’s awkward about the conclusion of the film is the fact that they didn’t seem to quite trust Tolkein’s judgement in this section. Or maybe it’s just that I thought it was the best part of the book.
But that’s not to say what’s there isn’t very good. Because it is very good.
I think I already said that.
Oh yes, at the start.